Support for Perkins waning

James Carlson and Barbara Hollingsworth

Monday

May 31, 2010 at 7:21 PM

It is getting so Jayhawk faithful can hardly pick up the newspaper or flip on the news without sighing.

In the fall, University of Kansas football coach Mark Mangino was pushed out over accusations he was abusive to players. Then the FBI and Internal Revenue Service began investigating the athletics ticket office. Last week, the university released an internal investigation detailing how KU lost out on at least $1 million — and perhaps more than $3 million — because of a scam in which employees are alleged to have boosted their own incomes with black-market ticket sales.

Finally, allegations came that reached to the top. Athletic director Lew Perkins filed a police report, saying he was the victim of blackmail. But the perpetrator of that alleged blackmail, former athletics employee William Dent, said Perkins had stepped deep into unethical grounds by accepting $35,000 in exercise equipment in exchange for awarding the equipment company's owners choice men's basketball tickets. Perkins and the former company's owners deny any special favors resulted, but some boosters are concerned.

"Where there's smoke, there's fire," said Bill Koehn, a board member of the Topeka Jayhawk Club.

The program has been tarnished, added fellow Topeka Jayhawk Club board member Michael Dixon.

"The only way to deal with this is to start over," Dixon said.

Not so fast, said Michael Wade Smith, student body president at KU. He said the allegations sound like a "frustrated man" trying to attack Lew and tear down the athletics corporation. He said Dent's threats to go public with his allegations appeared "underhanded."

"I would say over the time that Lew Perkins has been in charge of athletics, we can look back and say that the grand majority of things have been great and beneficial for KU and very beneficial for KU athletics," Smith said.

Perkins last week said he took responsibility for the problems within his department while rejecting responsibility for possible illegal activity.

"We thought we had every safeguard in place," Perkins said. "Nobody picked up on it. I certainly didn't."

Smith said the problems come down to individuals who were out to get something for themselves.

"I don't think this should reflect badly on the (athletics) corporation or Lew, who has done an outstanding job for the university," he said.

For others, however, the latest allegations come the closest yet to casting doubt on Perkins.

"If this had been the only incident, you would have looked at it probably very differently," said Phyllis Kelly, a longtime member of the Jayhawk club.

Since arriving on campus in 2003, Perkins has been seen as a prolific fundraiser as KU claimed victories at the Orange Bowl and NCAA men's basketball championship. Giving to KU Athletics has boomed — up more than 300 percent between the 2000 and 2009 fiscal years to $31.3 million — growth that outpaced the increase in funds raised for nonathletics at KU. But some fans were alienated by the aggressive push, particularly a point system that awarded seats to the best givers, pricing some Jayhawk faithful out of tickets during the full-court press to boost the bottom line.

"They brought Lew here to do what he did, which is get a lot of money out of people," Koehn said. "I think Lew's too big for his boots."

Koehn was incredulous about the alleged value of the equipment that sat in Perkins' home. Why accept a gift or loan of equipment, he wondered, when Perkins isn't exactly strapped for cash.

"What does a guy making $4 million need with $35,000 of equipment?" he asked.

On Sunday, one owner of the exercise equipment company said the equipment was, at most, valued at $15,000 and wasn't intended as a gift — it was meant to aid in Perkins' physical therapy.

The Kansas Board of Regents, which oversees KU and five other state universities, has been watching the events unfold. Kip Peterson, a spokesman, pointed Monday to a statement the Regents put out last week when the investigation into the ticket office was released.

"Even the slightest hint of unethical behavior surrounding the athletics program hurts the student athletes, the Department's honest personnel, and loyal and supportive KU alumni," the statement quoted Regents chairwoman Jill Docking. "We have confidence that Chancellor (Bernadette) Gray-Little will restore the integrity of the Department."

Stay Connected

Original content available for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons license, except where noted.
The Topeka Capital-Journal ~ 616 SE Jefferson, Topeka, KS 66607 ~ Privacy Policy ~ Terms Of Service